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Announcement :: Animal Rights : Environment : Protest Activity |
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Demonstrations Scheduled in Protest of Inhumane and Scientifically Questionable Bow Hunt at Allerton Park |
Current rating: 0 |
by Sonja Kassal
Email: sak12 (nospam) po.cwru.edu (verified)
Phone: 359-2169 |
28 Oct 2004
Modified: 06:38:18 PM |
Please join Students Improving the Lives of Animals in protesting the upcoming bow-and-arrow deer hunt at Allerton Park. Bow hunting is a cruel and ineffective way of curbing deer overpopulation.
CAMPUS DEMONSTRATION
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29th
We will gather on the quad near the south entrance to the union at 11:45 am to leaflet, protest, and raise awareness about this hunt. At 1:00 pm the protest will move on to the Swanlund administration building (corner of 6th and John). Feel free to show up anytime between 11:45 and 2:00.
ALLERTON PROTEST
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31st
The protest will take place from approximately 8:30-10:30 am at the main parking lot of Allerton and will coincide with a footrace at the park. If you need directions or a ride from the campus area, write to sak12 (at) po.cwru.edu.
Participants in both events are encouraged to bring signs and other visuals. |
A bow-and-arrow deer hunt is scheduled to begin at the university-owned Allerton Park this Sunday, October 31st. Students Improving the Lives of Animals (SILA), a U of I animal welfare organization, is asking the community to make phone-calls, write letters, and participate in demonstrations to protest the hunt.
The bow hunt is Allerton Park's response to a deer overpopulation problem that is causing environmental damage, but it is the cruelest method they could have chosen to manage the deer. Death by bow-and-arrow is slow and painful, and most of the doomed deer will be wounded by many arrows before they die. (Several reports state that an average of 17 arrows are shot per deer killed.) A quicker death is possible if the shots are very accurate, but the killing at Allerton will be done by ordinary hunters, not trained sharpshooters. There has never before been hunting in Allerton, and the deer living there are accustomed to feeling safe and comfortable around humans.
Furthermore, in meetings with university officials, SILA members and other activists learned that this hunt is expected to be almost completely ineffective in reducing the deer population and appears to be more of a concession to hunting interests than a serious effort to abate an environmental problem. David Schejbal, Associate Vice Chancellor, and other officials have admitted the following:
* That the choice of bow hunting was made not because they felt it was the best approach, but as a "community relations" effort to please those who wanted to hunt at Allerton
* That deer will be wounded and will have to be followed when they try to run
* That although Allerton is bordered in part by farmland, and the the bulk of the deer’s food comes from land outside of Allerton, the hunt was in no way initiated by farmers complaining about damage to crops
* That postponing this hunt and waiting a year to take action, as SILA has requested, would not cause an overpopulation crisis
* That the scheduled bow hunt is not a long-term solution and that THEY DO NOT EXPECT IT TO HAVE MUCH OF AN IMPACT ON THE DEER POPULATION!
Schejbal and the others are claiming that this bow kill is intended to research hunting as a strategy for population management, but we must insist that they put their research into finding a solution that is both effective and humane. Humane methods, including administering contraceptive drugs, are possible, and we believe they can be made to work if the university seriously researches them. SILA is already pursuing means by which the university could obtain funding for such a project.
Please join SILA in demanding that this hunt be cancelled and that action on the deer population issue be postponed for a year in order to take a serious look at solutions that will be humane, long-term, and effective.
In addition to attending the two demonstrations, you can call and write the following people to voice your opposition to the Allerton bow hunt:
*David Schejbal, Associate Vice Chancellor and Director, Office of
Continuing Education: (217) 333-1462,
schejbal (at) ad.uiuc.edu
*Interim Chancellor Richard Herman,
(217) 333-6677, rhh (at) sab.uiuc.edu
*University of Illinois Board of Trustees,
(217) 333-1920, uibot (at) uiuc.edu |
This work is in the public domain |
Comments
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Re: Demonstrations Scheduled in Protest of Inhumane and Scientifically Questionable Bow Hunt at Allerton Park |
by John Hilty
jhilty (nospam) shout.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
28 Oct 2004
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The university is conducting the bow hunt to control the deer overpopulation problem. If the overpopulation problem is not dealt with in an effective manner, the deer will destroy many of the native wildflowers and other flora at Allerton, including Trilliums, Lilies, Solomon's Seal, Bellworts, Asters, Orchids, and many others.
The cheapest and most effective manner to control the deer overpopulation problem is hunting by rifles. It is unclear to me why the university did not choose this method. Using contraceptives to control the deer population is less effective and more expensive. It should be remembered that the deer population was originally controlled by wolves and other top-level predators. Being torn apart and eaten by wolves to not particularly humane, but it was nature's solution to the deer overpopulation problem before humans killed off all of the wolves and other top-level predators in this area.
The article about this in the News-Gazette was highly slanted against the bow hunt, while providing press coverage to people who think that it's okay to let the deer run rampant in Allerton Park. These are not just a few ornamental plants that are at stake, but the integrity of an entire woodland ecosystem. This woodland ecosystem is in danger of disappearing unless the deer overpopulation problem is dealt with in an effective manner. |
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No Deer Hunting with Rifles in Illinois |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
28 Oct 2004
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I tend to agree that the deer have reached the point where they are a threat to the viability of the rest of the ecosystem in this micro environment. The excess of deer is a human problem and will require human, if not humane, intervention.
Rifles would be the most efficient and humane way to quickly reduce the deer population, except... rifles are illegal to use for deer hunting in Illinois. Shot guns and handguns are legit, within specified seasons. Both are better for quick kills than arrows, but perhaps don't fit the anti-gun proclivities of the present adminstration. That may be where the bow-hunting idea came from.
I used to work with a bunch of hunters and the standing joke was that bowhunting was for those who would rather not have to clean a deer after they had shot at it. Not that the human-friendly deer at Allerton will prove much of an issue for most hunters, who will most likely be overwhelmingly successful in the end. And then will have to come back again to keep the herd down, since it is an isolated quiet spot within an ocean of agroindustrial farmland that attracts deer.
The only solution short of killing a significant part of the population is a concerted effort to surround the park with a high fence and periodically scaring the excess deer out of it when they repopulate to excess. I'm not sure how feasible or even humane this might be, since many of the deer that leave the park will get hit on the road somehwere.
While I sympathize with the Bambi-huggers in principle, I also think something has to be done now or many other, prehaps less cute, species are at stake in an over-deer-browsed Allerton Park. |
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Re: Demonstrations Scheduled in Protest of Inhumane and Scientifically Questionable Bow Hunt at Allerton Park |
by Zach
zach (nospam) chambana.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
29 Oct 2004
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Apparently there are deer contraceptives that can be deployed as a means of preventing overpopulation before it happens, though some google searching suggests that such methods are fairly controversial and not always even effective. |
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Re: Demonstrations Scheduled in Protest of Inhumane and Scientifically Questionable Bow Hunt at Allerton Park |
by wayward
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
29 Oct 2004
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I'm suspecting that EC prescriptions might not work so well with deer. :) |
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Re: Demonstrations Scheduled in Protest of Inhumane and Scientifically Questionable Bow Hunt at Allerton Park |
by NRA4
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
29 Oct 2004
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If your concern is for the deer themselves, why not tranquilize them with rifle, and then put them to sleep? May cost money, but surely you could collect donations or something. |
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Re: Demonstrations Scheduled in Protest of Inhumane and Scientifically Questionable Bow Hunt at Allerton Park |
by John Hilty
jhilty (nospam) shout.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
29 Oct 2004
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I remember reading somewhere that deer contraceptives have been tried in the past to manage the deer overpopulation problem, but this method is rather expensive and often not very effective. Guns could control the problem (after all, the Passenger Pigeon was driven to extinction by them, and the American Bison was nearly driven to extinction), but would not be regarded as humane by the standards of the animal rights activists.
I like NRA4's suggestion about using tranquilizer darts on the deer. After they have been tranquilized, sodium pentathol or a similar drug could be administered to put them "to sleep" like the animals at a Humane Society Shelter. However, as soon as you reduce the deer population using this method, the deer will repopulate the woodlands and it will have to be repeated again and again . . . . It isn't clear to me if the university would be willing to come up with the extra-money for this, or whether this money could be raised on an on-going basis from donations. |
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Re: Demonstrations Scheduled in Protest of Inhumane and Scientifically Questionable Bow Hunt at Allerton Park |
by me
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
29 Oct 2004
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It has bene a genuine please to read this informative thread, which forgoes rancor and sloganeering |
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Re: Demonstrations Scheduled in Protest of Inhumane and Scientifically Questionable Bow Hunt at Allerton Park |
by Jon Fisher
barefootjon (nospam) hotrmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
31 Oct 2004
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I've spent over an hour talking to Dick Warner, the wildlife biologist consulted for this hunt, and a former professor of mine (I have B.S. degrees in forestry and environmental bio, and work in wildlife biology). His opinion is that this hunt will not affect the population, for a variety of reasons. The issue here is full disclosure and honesty about the hunt. There was heavy pressure from local bowhunters to open Allerton, and the director has admitted that this political issue was a major factor in the decision.
If they wanted to control the population, they would exclusive cull does, rather than 50% does and 50% bucks. In a large herd, killing males has a neglible effect on the population size.
Yes, there is an environmental problem at Allerton, but using an inhumane method to kill too few deer to provide any benefit doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If politics took a backdoor to good science, this could be an opportunity for UIUC to pioneer a systems approach to deer management. They could actually get solid data, try different techniques separately and in combination, etc.
Instead, we get Allerton turned into a hunt club b/c the neighboring 800 acres weren't enough for local hunters... |
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